LeapFrog Chat & Count Cell Phone

Naomi Shapiro

The LeapFrog Chat & Count Cell Phone is a play cell phone recommended for ages 18 months to 3 years. Jasper is 2 and a half but he tends to prefer toys that are targeted to older kids (robots that battle, action figures, etc.), so I was a bit concerned that it might be too “young” for him. To my surprise, he fell in love with it immediately. It looks like a cross between a smart phone and a calculator, with an LED screen that shows a cute puppy (an animated version of LeapFrog’s plush My Pal Scout). We’re big fans of LeapFrog toys in general, the Tag Reader and Leapster are our favorites, and the Chat & Count Cell Phone is a great new addition to its roster of educational and FUN toys. The big buttons on the Chat & Count Phone reinforce counting by audibly saying the numbers when pressed so your child can recognize the printed number with its name. Additionally, there are more than a dozen counting activities and songs to sing along with and, of course, there’s the undeniably irresistible lure of playing with a telephone. I have never understood why kids are so obsessed with toy phones when they so rarely want to talk to their elderly relatives on them.